Operation Featherweight: Month 11, Week 3, Day 2.

I know, it's been a while.

Certainly since they made their advance into Iraq in January 2014 it's been clear that one of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) main battlefield tactics has centred around the use of what are known as Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIED's). Essentially these are large, armoured trucks that are packed with explosives that are driven by a suicide bomber into the enemy's defensive line. Often once the VBIED blows a hole in the defensive line follow up vehicles packed with infantry and infantry units on foot then swarm through the gap outflanking the defensive forces causing them to withdraw.

This tactic was a particular problem during the recent fall of Ramadi where the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) were widely criticised for fleeing from ISIL VBIED's. However in the interests of fairness I should point out that if a VBIED can kill 50 troops at a time and ISIL can launch 4-5 VBIED attacks a day they if they didn't retreat then the ISF would rapidly run out of troops which leads to a much more serious form of defeat.

Obviously then developing a way to prevent this type of VBIED attack has become a priority in the fight against ISIL. I don't want to go into too much detail because it has developed into something of an arms race with forces on the ground discovering a weakness that they can exploit only for ISIL to modify their VBIED designs in order to remove that weakness. However I think it is well established that in Iraq's Kurdish areas the Peshmerga have become skilled in modifying high calibre (.50 inch+) weapons to use as sniper rifles to eliminate either the drivers or the engines of the VBIED's before they can do any damage. The Peshmerga have also been making use of MILAN-type wire-guided anti-tank missiles against VBIED's. These have the added advantage of destroying the VBIED rather then forcing someone to have to go out into no-mans land to defuse it. Unfortunately they're not being supplied with enough of these type of weapons and despite all the US training the tactic doesn't appear to have filtered down to the ISF.

Today a man in Texas, US drove an armoured truck packed with explosives at the police HQ in Dallas. Eventually the vehicle was stopped by a .50 inch sniper round to the engine block and another .50 inch sniper round to the driver's face. It is obviously this type of weapon that US President Obama wants to ban the police from using as part of his frequent attacks on the police - most recently in Cleveland, Ohio and McKinney, Texas.

As almost something of side note the driver appears to have been motivated in carrying out the attack because of a child custody dispute in which he accused the police spreading lies about him. This is a reference to the Rebecca Minnock case that has been running in the UK throughout the week. Essentially what happened is that as part of a custody dispute Ms Minnock accused her ex-husband of abusing their child. This triggered an investigation that found Ms Minnock was mentally unstable and had been lying so custody of the child was awarded to the father. Ms Minnock then kidnapped the child and went on the run. She has since handed herself in and the child has been returned to it's father.

With this all taking place in and around Bristol this all seems to have been a rather wobbly reference to my lesbian wife and what is generally referred to as the "Bristol Abuse Case." Essentially Switzerland brought this up on the UK's behalf at the recent Eurovision Song Contest only for nations such as Norway, Spain and particularly Germany to roundly mock the UK over the matter. As such the Minnock case was supposed to give the impression of the UK entering into some dialogue over the issue. The UK constantly tries to engage it's neighbours over the issue but nothing ever changes.

21:30 on 13/6/15 (UK date).